


Naeleon Week 2020

by CitrusKix



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Actors, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor, Angst, Baseball, Bisexuality, Boys In Love, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Caretaking, Chatlogs, Chatting & Messaging, Coffee, Competition, Cooking, Donuts, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Escape, First Meetings, Gay Panic, Hurt/Comfort, Interviews, Love at First Sight, M/M, Naeleon Week 2020, Past Abuse, Pre-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Puzzles, Rain, Secret Relationship, Sick Character, Sickfic, Soulmates, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:41:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27343720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CitrusKix/pseuds/CitrusKix
Summary: Seven short fics with Leon x Makoto in them, as a way to celebrate Naeleon Week 2020.
Relationships: Kuwata Leon/Naegi Makoto
Comments: 3
Kudos: 52





	1. Day 1: Soulmates

The definition of the word “soulmate”, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, can be one of two things; “a person who is perfectly suited to another in temperament”, and “a person who strongly resembles another in attitudes or beliefs”. In other words, a person’s soulmate is someone who balances them out, and helps them grow as a person. To find such a soulmate in a world of almost eight billion people is next to impossible for most people, so many just settle for what’s available instead.

And yet, on his first day at Hope’s Peak Academy, Leon Kuwata was sure that he had found his soulmate.

He initially had no interest in attending the prestigious academy. Despite being one of the best baseball players in all of Japan, even being better than some professional players, Leon had an incredible distaste for the sport. He had a knack for it, but to him, it was nothing more than a burden to shoulder so the expectations of others wouldn’t bury him six feet under. He was finally persuaded to be the Ultimate Baseball Star when he heard that ultra talented girls would be attending the school.

It may have been the girls that brought Leon to Hope’s Peak Academy, but it was fate that made him fall for another guy.

They met during the orientation in the main hall of the school. He was the last to walk in, and at a first glance, aside from his short stature, he had no discernible characteristics. His hair was a plain brown, his eyes were a somewhat muted green, and his outfit was something you’d see other teenagers wear if they were trying to be somewhat fashionable. Yet there was an aura of kindness that radiated off of him that drew Leon to him.

During their brief introductory exchanges, Leon learned that the guy’s name was Makoto Naegi. It felt like it was pure bliss to hear, especially as it rolled off of Makoto’s tongue. Leon found it easy for him to talk to Makoto about everything, even going so far as to reveal his true aspirations of becoming a musician to him. He wanted to stay and talk to Makoto to get to know him better, but soon enough, Makoto had to leave to greet the others. Leon wanted to reach for him, yet held himself back from doing so with all of his might. If there was such a thing as a red string of fate, Leon was certain that his would be tugging at his finger to get closer to Makoto.

That’s when he realized that Makoto Naegi, a guy he just met a minute beforehand, was his soulmate.

Or so he thought, at least.

After everyone came down from their fits of hysteria upon the reveal by the monochromatic bear they had as a principal that the only way they’d be able to escape the school was to murder someone else, Leon found that Makoto would often want to hang out with him whenever possible. Sayaka and Junko seemed to cling onto Makoto, sure, but whenever the stouter boy was able to evade the two girls, he could often go to meet up with the baseball player.

Whenever they hung out, Makoto always came bearing gifts. And it was gifts that Leon genuinely would’ve liked getting from anyone; Makoto had gifted him stuff like tee shirts, video games, and even a charming little bracelet that Leon kept on wearing, even after teasing the male about how weird it was to give a guy a bracelet of all things. But it looked good on him, and it was from Makoto, his soulmate, so he wore it with a silent air of pride.

After receiving Makoto’s gifts, the two would often just talk about whatever came to mind. Leon really opened up to Makoto; he felt comfortable doing so, in a way he wasn’t ever able to with those around him. He never even opened up to his cousin Kanon as much as he did to Makoto. The shorter guy would listen intently to everything that Leon had to say, and would often offer responses that helped make the baseballer feel better about anything that may have been bogging him down at the moment. It was almost like magic.

But magic doesn’t last forever, and the looming dread that permeated their everyday lives really began to settle in when Monokuma offered everyone their first motive.

Leon’s video had his family and his old baseball team congratulating him on getting into Hope’s Peak, before the camera cut to the field they were standing on barren, save for his coach laying on his stomach in a puddle of blood. He couldn’t see the older man’s face, but it was clear that he was dead. To say that the video unnerved Leon was an understatement. Everyone else around him had similar reactions to their videos; Sayaka especially seemed to take hers hard. Everyone’s anxiety was through the roof, and one could smell the plotting of murder churning through the room. It was suffocating.

After the motive was revealed, Makoto only hung out with Leon one more time; Sayaka was taking up much of his time. The baseballer invited the stouter guy into his room, and confessed that he missed baseball. The motive video got to him, but his nerves were also itching to play it since he hadn’t done so in ages. The two played catch for a bit, and while it was undeniable that something could happen, nothing did. It was nice for Leon. He wanted it to stay like this. He wanted it to stay the way it was, so he and his soulmate could stay together.

The hopes of everything staying the way it was ended the moment Sayaka swung the knife at Leon’s face.

Everything up to that point was fine. Sayaka invited Leon over to chat for a bit about something in private, and he wanted to take the initiative to help her out. Sauntering over to her room, he opened the door and closed it behind him, before being attacked by the pop idol. Had it not been for his sportsman reflexes, he would’ve likely been cut in the eyes by the blade Sayaka wielded, meaning he would’ve been blinded and in agonizing pain as she brutally murdered him. So he did what he could, and retaliated by grabbing the nearest thing he could; a golden katana on display.

A struggle between the two students ensued; Sayaka was desperate to escape by any means necessary, and Leon was desperate to survive against a bloodthirsty soon-to-be murderer. Leon had the upper hand shortly after it began though, due to his athletic skills and general strength, and took the knife away, causing Sayaka to do the only thing that seemed plausible for someone with a hysteric mind like her; run. Unfortunately for her, she ran into the bathroom. In other words, she ran into a dead end.

But Leon wasn’t going to give up on her. He wanted to help her however he could, so he got into the bathroom with the aid of his toolkit. He tried to comfort her and to protect her. And for a few moments, it seemed to be working. Leon wanted to try to give her a hug, as a final step to assure her that everything was alright.

He forgot that the knife she held earlier was still in his hand when he went in to hug her, causing it to stab right through her gut.

The look on Sayaka’s face was that of absolute despair. She was hurt, betrayed, in pain, and hysteric. She seemed like she was about to break down into tears at any given moment before bursting into manic laughter. She slumped over on the floor, and Leon panicked. In the end, he had killed Sayaka Maizono.

For a moment, he considered turning himself in. The whole thing was an accident, so he rationalized that everyone would forgive him. But to expose himself as a killer to Makoto felt too horrible for him to go through with it. So instead, he tried to clean up everything and hide it, so no one would find it.

Makoto ended up being the first person to find Sayaka’s dead body the following morning.

When the shorter boy finally woke up after having passed out, the rest of the other students - save for Junko, who was skewered to death by Monokuma as a demonstration of what would happen if a student violated one of his rules - began to investigate Sayaka’s murder. Leon cursed under his breath at his sloppy cleanup job, and how everyone seemed to be figuring out how the murder unfolded. Kyoko also seemed to be giving him glances from afar, and he couldn’t help but feel as if she already knew that he was the one responsible for taking the life of someone else.

The trial - an aspect to getting out of Hope’s Peak Academy that Leon didn’t expect whatsoever - immediately pinned the blame on Makoto as Sayaka’s killer. Leon jumped on the bandwagon really quickly in an effort to obscure any relevance he may have had to the idol’s ultimate demise. But much to his dismay, Kyoko began suggesting ideas to the group that led to them clearing Makoto of his name... and turning the blame over to Leon.

The baseballer was never good at confrontations, if he couldn’t punch his way out of it. So he screamed and shouted and thrashed about in a desperate plea against the man he loved that he was innocent. But it was too late. Makoto had figured it all out.

After a recap of everything, Monokuma revealed that the punishment for taking another person’s life at Hope’s Peak Academy was a public execution. It dawned on Leon at that moment that he was going to die. So he screamed and cried, begging to be spared. But the bear spared him no mercy, and he was whisked away to his own demise.

It was a battering cage, with him strapped to a pole. A machine loaded with baseballs began shooting them at him at rapid speeds in rapid succession, swirling around him to break and crush every single bone in his body. He was in pain, and if the machine itself wasn’t whirring so loudly, the other students watching Leon be executed would be able to hear his howls of pain.

Then it clicked.

A wave of memories that Leon couldn’t recall washed over him. They were all already students at Hope’s Peak Academy. They even spent a year in class together. And the world outside had gone to shit, so they willingly locked themselves inside the academy to survive indefinitely. And he could recall all the memories of Makoto that he had.

This wasn’t his first time falling for Makoto. He had fallen for the boy the exact same way last time. They bonded, had conversations with each other, hung out a lot, did dumb stuff together. They were close. So all Leon could do in his pained state of being was scream.

“MAKOTO, I’M SO SOR-!”

It was too late. With one more ball to his cranium, Leon’s brain ceased to function, and the baseballer was dead. The other students bore witness to his limp and bloodied corpse, mangled and destroyed from the impact of all the baseballs hitting his body, as it stayed strapped to the pole inside the battering cage.


	2. Day 2: Rain

“Urgh... why didn’t you stop me yesterday, Makoto...?”

“I tried to, Leon. But when you set your mind on something, you usually go for it. And no matter how much I try to tell you to not do it, you still go ahead and do it anyway.”

“...Okay yeah, fair enough... damn it, me, why can’t I just listen to my boyfriend for once...?”

Shortly after moving into their new apartment today in Tokyo, Makoto and Leon witnessed a heavy rainstorm fall upon the city. Despite the evident intensity of the storm outside, Leon thought it would be a good idea to go out and play in the rain like how one would do as as a child. Though Makoto tried to encourage the redhead to properly bundle up for the rainy weather, Leon ended up leaving the apartment for two hours, only to come back soaking wet, hunched over shivering, and burning up.

Makoto decided to skip classes for the day to take care of Leon, while Leon had to call in sick for his practice, much to his coach’s chagrin. The baseballer didn’t particularly feel like getting an earful from the older man, especially when his body’s not exactly in prime condition, so he abruptly hung up on him once the voice on the other end of the phone started to turn into a yell of anger. Makoto was mildly displeased with Leon’s choice of actions. “I know you’re sick, but you could’ve at least let him chew you out a little for something that’s technically your fault,” he chided his boyfriend. “I know you don’t like hearing him yell at you - trust me, he scares me quite a bit - but it’s for the best to hear him out. He is your coach, after all.”

Leon let out a small grunt of annoyance in response to Makoto’s scolding. “Yeah yeah, I know,” he groaned, shifting on the couch to be a bit more comfortable. “But he’s not exactly the person I want to be talking to right now.”

The shorter boy huffed and folded his arms. “I know...” he complied. “In any case, you need to feel better. Since you’re sick from the rain, I’ll fix you a bath really quickly. Soak in it so you can feel better while I make us some rice porridge and ginger tea. I might even be able to get us some pickled plums if I run to the store really quickly.”

“Nah, don’t bother with the plums,” Leon told Makoto. “I don’t want you to end up getting sick from the rain as well. It may have stopped for a bit, but the forecast said it’ll start up again sometime later today.” Indeed, the rain outside the apartment had stopped since earlier in the morning, but the radio the two had was set to a weather report station, which declared that the rain would be returning later in the afternoon.

“Okay okay, no pickled plums then,” Makoto agreed. “Now let me go run the water. It’s going to be extra warm, so be ready for that, Leon-kun.”

The baseballer let out a groan of disapproval. “You know I hate that feeling of heat...” he whined. “Why can’t I just sweat it off?”

“You will in the bathtub. And if you do it in the bed, the sheets will soak up the sweat, and I’ll need to go to the laundromat to wash them. And it’s a little counterproductive to wash clothes at a laundromat when it’s raining; the clothes would just get wet in the process. So, you have no choice but to deal with the bathtub.”

“Ugh... fine, I’ll do with the stupid bathtub for now... But I make no promises not to sweat my ass off in the sheets later tonight.”

“Then I guess I’ll just have to pull out the futon and sleep there for the night.”

“W-Wait, no, Makoto, that was a joke-!”

“I know. I know you like cuddling with me at night, Leon-kun.”

“...I do, yeah.”

Makoto made his way over to the bathroom the two men had in their apartment and turned on the faucet for the tub. He had scrubbed it clean earlier, so he wasn’t particularly worried about Leon getting sick from contacting any possible built-up grime clinging to the sides of the tub. He let the water run for a bit, and stuck his hand under it periodically to check to see if the water was warm enough for the redhead to bathe in or not. Once he felt like it was ready for a bath, he closed the tub’s drain and let the water gradually fill the tub up about three quarters the way full, before turning the faucet off.

Makoto made his way back over to his boyfriend, who was laying on their couch with a damp cloth on his forehead, and knelt beside him. “Hey, Leon, the bath is ready for you,” he told him in a soft voice. “Do you want me to help you get into the tub? Or do you think you’ll manage by yourself?”

Leon tried to hoist himself up, but instead sharply inhaled as he fell back down onto the couch. He weakly laughed before admitting to the shorter guy “Yeah, I’m probably gonna need help with getting into the tub.”

Makoto silently nodded, and wrapped one of Leon’s arms around his shoulders before pulling him off the couch. Walking slowly as to make sure the baseballer didn’t fall over the entire time, Makoto guided Leon down the hallway and into the bathroom. Once there, he helped the taller guy undress before helping him into the tub. Leon slid down into the water and let out a sigh of relaxation as some of the water spilled out of the tub and down the drain. “Do you need me to get you anything really quickly?” Makoto asked. “It wouldn’t be that big of a problem.”

Leon pondered on it for a moment before teasing the shorter boy with “How about a kiss?” Makoto simply rolled his eyes in response, which Leon found amusing. “Yeah, I get it. You don’t want to get sick either,” he stated. “I don’t blame you for wanting that. I don’t really need anything else from you at the moment. I just... wanna soak in this heat for a bit. It feels so damn good...”

“Alright then, I’m going to go get started on the porridge and tea,” Makoto told the redhead. “I’ll bring you a towel and some pajamas once I’m done cooking everything for you.”

“Mm, sounds good,” Leon agreed. “Go take care of what you need to do. I highly doubt I’m going anywhere for the time being.”

Chuckling a little at the redhead’s joke, Makoto left the bathroom so he could go begin on the food. Heading into the kitchen, he took out the apron he kept in one of the drawers and put it on. ‘Alright, let’s get started.’

The first thing he needed to do was to start on the porridge. Taking out a large pot, the shorter boy washed 250 grams of white rice under the running sink water before pouring it and 1500 milliliters of water into the pot, before starting the heat on the stovetop at a high temperature. Stirring it quickly, he turned the heat down to a simmer and covered the pot with a lid once the mixture came to a boil. All he had to do now was wait.

Figuring to get started on the ginger tea next, Makoto filled up the kettle they had with water and placed it on the stove right next to the pot, and turned the heat on for it. Pulling out a cutting board shortly afterward, he took out some ginger root out of the fridge and washed them under the sink, making sure to wash off any possible specks of dirt on them. He then set them aside and got out a knife, and began chopping the ginger root thinly.

The kettle on the stovetop began to hiss loudly, indicating that it was done to the brown haired boy. He killed the heat on it and brought it over to the counter where the slices of ginger were. Taking off the lid of the kettle, Makoto then gently tossed the ginger slices into the water, before bringing the kettle back over to the stovetop and letting it steep there on a very low heat.

After checking up on the porridge and stirring it a bit, Makoto figured the next thing to do would be to get the towel and pajamas ready for Leon. Heading to the laundry room, Makoto pulled out a clean towel from one of the cabinets and refolded it to help prevent any wrinkles that the towel may have. Then he made his way over to the bedroom that he and Leon shared, and opened the drawer that held all of Leon’s clothes. Shuffling around in it for a bit, he eventually pulled out a button-up with long sleeves that was made out of cotton and some sweatpants. Closing the drawer quickly, Makoto walked over to the bathroom where Leon was soaking in and opened the door. “Leon, I got you some pajamas,” he informed his boyfriend.

“Mmh? Oh, thanks man,” Leon said in a bit of a haze. “This water feels so good, so let me just sit here for a bit longer. I’ll come out when I feel ready.”

Mildly concerned about possibly having Leon falling unconscious while submerged in water, Makoto responded with “Alright, but I’m going to let the steam air out. Come out when you’re ready.” Leon gave a grunt of affirmation, and Makoto left the man to sit in the tub, making sure to leave the door to the bathroom slightly ajar so the steam that was trapped inside the room could come out.

Heading over to the kitchen once more, Makoto checked up on the porridge to see if it was ready. Indeed, the porridge was ready; while it was ultimately flavorless due to a lack of seasoning of any kind, it was a consistency that Leon’s body would be able to handle while dealing with his cold. He then turned his attention over to the tea; it was already ready, and quite aromatic when Makoto caught a waft of it when he lifted the lid of the kettle off it.

Quickly setting the small table that the two of them had, Makoto laid out plate mats and silverware for them to use while eating. He took out two mugs and poured each of them with the ginger tea from the kettle that had been steeping for a while. As he was getting out the bowls for the porridge, however, Leon came shuffling out,dressed in the pajamas that Makoto had given him.

“Ah, you’re out,” the shorter boy acknowledged. “Just in time. I was actually about to go get you. Take a seat, and I’ll hand you your bowl on a second.”

“Mm, okay, sure thing,” Leon agreed. He pulled out one of the chairs and plopped himself on it, and drooped over a little. “Man, that bath was so refreshing,” he sighed. “Kind of sucks that my skin’s now all wrinkly and whatnot, though. If it didn’t turn like that after soaking in water for so long, I’d probably have stayed in there for a while longer.”

“I totally get how you feel,” Makoto acknowledged. “But if you didn’t get out, you wouldn’t be able to eat this porridge I just finished making.” Makoto swooped around Leon and set a bowl of warm rice porridge in front of the taller man, before setting himself in the seat adjacent to him with his own bowl of porridge in front of him. “Let’s dig in, okay?”

Leon lazily nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Let’s dig in. Thank you for the food.” Leon grabbed the spoon next to him that Makoto had set out just moments prior to him sitting down, and scooped up a small part of the porridge before eating it. He let out a small noise to know that he approved of it. “It’s a little bland, but it’s definitely what I need right now,” he described. “Thank you for making this, Makoto. Seriously.”

The shorter boy laughed in response. “Yeah, of course Leon,” he replied. “I just want you to have a speedy recovery. And what better way to recover than to eat food made by someone who made it with love?”

“...Yeah. The food made with love always does taste better, huh?”

“Yep. So that’s why you should cherish it while you can.”

“...Yeah. I can do that.”


	3. Day 3: Phones

_( **11037** has added **UnbreakableDiamond** and **Lovelace314** to the conversation.)_

**11037**  
guys

**11037**  
i need some fukcing help

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
fucking*

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
learn how to spell swears before using them you dumbass

**Lovelace314**  
I don’t think that’s the problem here, Owada-san.

**Lovelace314**  
What’s the problem, Kuwata-san?

**11037**  
okay so

**11037**  
im getting feelings for this one guy

**Lovelace314**  
Is it Naegi-san?

**11037**  
and idek how to handle it

**11037**  
.

**11037**  
did

**11037**  
did you know about this ages ago chihiro?

**Lovelace314**  
I hate to sound rude, but you haven’t really tried to mask your attraction towards him for the past few months.

**11037**  
oh

**11037**  
well shit

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
HAHAHAAHA

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
I FUCKING CANT BELIEVE THIS

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
KUWATAS GAY FOR THE SHORT GUY

**11037**  
STFU YOU HIMBO

**Lovelace314**  
Owada-san, I’m shorter than Naegi-san.

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU CALLING A HIMBO YOU RED PEPPER LOOKING ASS

**Lovelace314**  
Oh no.

**Lovelace314**  
I’m getting Ishimaru-san for this.

**11037**  
OH BRING IT ON YOU CORN COB HAIR LOOKING FUCK

_( **Lovelace314** has added **IshimaruKiyotaka** to the conversation.)_

**11037**  
ILL THROW DOWN WITH YOU IDGAF

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
BOTH OF YOU, REFRAIN FROM VERBALLY ASSAULTING EACH OTHER RIGHT THIS INSTANT!

**11037**  
SILENCE BOTTOM

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
I WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH BEHAVIORS AMONGST MY CLASSMATES!

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
I’m unsure of what a bottom is but I’m presuming it’s an insult.

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
I’m merely trying to mediate this heated debate on Fukisaki-san’s behalf.

**Lovelace314**  
You don’t want to know what a bottom is, Ishimaru-san.

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
yknow

**Lovelace314**  
You REALLY don’t want to know.

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
using all caps isnt gonna get us to stop arguing taka

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
I see. Thank you for the information Kyoudai!

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
yeah yeah whatever

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
And I see, Fujisaki-san. I shall refrain from identifying what a bottom is then.

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
still gonna beat your ass for that later kuwata

**11037**  
k sure

**11037**  
but for real i still need help with naegi

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
Oh? Was there a dispute between you two recently?

**11037**  
no im just super fucking gay for him

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
Perhaps I could help settle any arguments you have!

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
Oh.

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
I never took you to be a homosexual, Kuwata-san.

**11037**  
dude im bi not gay

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
I will still support you though!

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
Oh.

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
I’m afraid I don’t understand. How can you be bi but be homosexual for Naegi-san?

**11037**  
dude

**11037**  
being bi means i like guys and girls

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
But how can someone be both heterosexual and homosexual at the same time? Are you feeling attractions towards a girl in conjunction with your feelings for Naegi-san?

**Lovelace314**  
Um, perhaps it’d be better if I explained the concept of bisexuality to you in a DM, Ishimaru-san.

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
Of course. I look forward to your explanation.

**Lovelace314**  
Kuwata-san, I’ll add Maizono-san in the meantime.

**Lovelace314**  
She’s known Naegi-san since middle school, so she might be of help regarding this.

**11037**  
yea ofc man

_( **Lovelace314** has added **AtypicalBluebird** to the conversation.)_

**AtypicalBluebird**  
Oh??? Whats this???

**Lovelace314**  
Hi Maizono-san.

**11037**  
sup maizono

**IshimaruKiyotaka**  
Greetings to you Maizono-san!

**AtypicalBluebird**  
!!! Hello everyone!!!

**Lovelace314**  
Kuwata-san has a problem regarding Naegi-san, and I figured you’re the best person to help with this.

**AtypicalBluebird**  
Oh ofc!!! Whats the problem???

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
kuwatas got the hots for naegi

**11037**  
WPGISFOEISOPETHAPDXJZNLCX

**11037**  
D U D E

**AtypicalBluebird**  
!!! That actually makes a lot of sense

**11037**  
YOU DIDNT HAVE TO BE SO BLUNT ABOUT IT

**11037**  
MAIZONO WTF DO YOU MEAN BY THAT

**Lovelace314**  
Well, it’s lovely to see that you all are getting along, so now I’m off to give Ishimaru-san a lesson on what bisexuality is.

**AtypicalBluebird**  
!!! Ooo ofc ofc!!! Have fun with that!!!

**AtypicalBluebird**  
And Kuwata kun you need to know something about Naegi kun

**11037**  
try me

**AtypicalBluebird**  
Hes a total sucker for homemade stuff

**11037**  
.

**11037**  
well fuck

**11037**  
idk how to make anything homemade

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
AAAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAHA

**11037**  
CAN IT ASSHOLE

**11037**  
STILL FINNA READY TO THROW THE FUCKETH DOWN WITH YOU

**AtypicalBluebird**  
!!!!! No fighting plz!!!!!

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
ILL BEAT YOUR ASS INTO A MEATY SLUSHIE YOU PUNK ASS WANNABE MOTHERFUCKER

**AtypicalBluebird**  
!!!!!!!! WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DISCUSSING THE GAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
ugh fine

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
maybe all caps messages really do help stop arguments

**11037**  
maybe

**11037**  
anyways maizonos right

**11037**  
we gotta discuss my gay ass for naegi

**11037**  
and how idk how to make anything homemade

**11037**  
cuz i cant even cook man

**11037**  
im the type of guy that burns water

**11037**  
w a t e r

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
somehow i cant say im surprised

**11037**  
stfu

**AtypicalBluebird**  
!!! What if I help you out with making something homemade Kuwata kun???

**AtypicalBluebird**  
We could make cookies!!!

**11037**  
ooo thats a good idea actually

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
yeah it is

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
i know id like to get homemade cookies from a pretty girl

**11037**  
same but from naegi

**AtypicalBluebird**  
Oh dw about it Kirigiri chan!!! Kuwata kun will figure it out sometime!!!

**11037**  
maizono

**AtypicalBluebird**  
!!!!!!!!!!!

_( **AtypicalBluebird** has left the conversation.)_

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
HOH SHIT

**11037**  
M A I Z O N O

_( **11037** had added **AtypicalBluebird** to the conversation.)_

**11037**  
MAIZONO YOU BETTER FUCKING EXPLAIN YOURSELF

**AtypicalBluebird**  
Oh well um uh

**AtypicalBluebird**  
I maaaay be chatting with Naegi kun Kirigiri chan and Asahina chan about a very similar subject at the same time as me chatting with you guys

**11037**  
M A I Z O N O

**AtypicalBluebird**  
Im sorry!!! I didnt want to say anything because it wouldve been rude to!!!!!

**Lovelace314**  
What did I just come back to?

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
maizonos been chatting here and with naegis group

**Lovelace314**  
Oh.

**Lovelace314**  
That makes sense, to be honest.

**11037**  
BUT S T I L L

**Lovelace314**  
Maizono-san IS part of their circle, after all.

**Lovelace314**  
Anyways.

**Lovelace314**  
Maizono-san, what are you guys talking about in Naegi-san’s chat?

**AtypicalBluebird**  
!!! Oh uh

**AtypicalBluebird**  
Naegi sans talking about his feelings for someone

**11037**  
oh god

**11037**  
who is it

**AtypicalBluebird**  
Welllllllllll

**AtypicalBluebird**  
Maybe if you make him cookies and give them to him he might tell you

**11037**  
.

**11037**  
o h

**11037**  
oh f u c k

**11037**  
maizono

**AtypicalBluebird**  
??? Yes???

**11037**  
meet me in the kitchen in 10

**11037**  
were gonna make a shitload of cookies

**AtypicalBluebird**  
!!! Okay!!!

**AtypicalBluebird**  
Lemme get ready!!!

**11037**  
k

**11037**  
cya there

**AtypicalBluebird**  
See ya there Kuwata kun!!!

**AtypicalBluebird**  
Take care Fujisaki kun Owada kun!!!

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
cya

**Lovelace314**  
Take care Maizono-san!

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
hey fujisaki

**Lovelace314 **  
Yes Owada-san?****

********

********

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
you think kirigiris put two and two together already?

**Lovelace314**  
Oh, most definitely.

**Lovelace314**  
She is the Ultimate Detective, after all.

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
yeah same

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
shes probably gonna sneak into the kitchen to take pics of kuwata and maizono making cookies or something

**Lovelace314**  
Maybe.

**Lovelace314**  
I hope she finds a good hiding place there if she intends to do that.

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
think shell sell me a pic if i ask?

**Lovelace314**  
It wouldn’t hurt to try.

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
alright ill do it tomorrow

**11037**  
wtf is wrong with you two

**11037**  
now im gonna have to check everywhere in the kitchen before making anything just so she isnt hiding somewhere

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
damn it i wanted those pictures

**11037**  
fuck you owada

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
shut up and go make those damn cookies already

**11037**  
fine

**11037**  
but im gonna make you eat all the burnt batches

**UnbreakableDiamond**  
sure whatever

**Lovelace314**  
What a solid demonstration of the camaraderie between two guys.

**11037**  
stfu fujisaki

**Lovelace314**  
And if I say no?

**Lovelace314**  
What will you do then, Kuwata-san?

**11037**  
this

_( **11037** has kicked **Lovelace314** from the conversation.)_


	4. Day 4: Pregame

The sports festival held every year at Hope’s Peak Academy always had a bunch of fun games for its students to partake in. Many of the activities were stuff that one would expect to find at a typical school’s sports festival; three-legged runs, relay races, games of tug-of-war, and even stuff like sack races and high jump events were all present each and every year.

However, Hope’s Peak Academy liked to also add other things to the sports festival that may seem rather odd to the average person.

The academy had always cherished the strength of a person’s mind in junction with their physical capabilities, so they added events to the sports festival to capitalize off of that mentality. Events such as scavenger hunts and quiz shows were also part of the academy’s annual line-up for events during their sports festival.

However, the most odd addition to the sports festival of all were the escape rooms.

Put together into groups of two, students would compete against each other in escape rooms set up by the school in portable rooms brought in every year. The rooms had various themes to them, such as private rooms at night clubs, film noir detective offices, and even a fantasy JRPG world at one point. The groups would be made per people’s requests, and whichever group managed to escape first would win the contest. It was a quirky idea, and many of the former students who partook in the event looked back at it fondly whenever it was brought up.

So when the escape room event finally came up at his first sports festival at Hope’s Peak Academy, Makoto knew he had to reserve a spot for him and Leon.

Though it wasn’t public due to Leon’s desire to stay desirable in the eyes of the public, the two boys had been dating for the past few weeks after Leon confessed to Makoto on accident. Since then, the two had become closer with one another, and it wouldn’t raise any eyebrows to do an event with someone whom the public deemed to just be a fellow classmate, or even a good friend. Makoto reserved a spot for him and Leon at the event, and looked forward to when it would occur.

When the time finally came for the escape room events, four teams presented themselves from the same class; Makoto and Leon, Sayaka and Kyoko, Celes and Hifumi, and to a few people’s surprise, Sakura and Chihiro. Koichi came up to the front of the escape rooms, took out a megaphone, and turned it on. “Alright you guys. Are you ready?” he asked us. We all responded affirmatively, to which he replied with “Then pick a room and go inside. Don’t start until it locks, and don’t break anything. Seriously. Some of the stuff in these rooms are really expensive.”

As the groups murmured amongst themselves as to figure out which rooms they would pick, Makoto turned to Leon. “So, which one do you want to go with?” he questioned.

Leon simply shrugged in response. “Eh. I don’t really care, to be honest,” he said. “I’m just doing this because you wanted me to, and because I don’t wanna work up a sweat doing something like a relay race.”

Makoto, disappointed with the taller boy’s response, folded his arms. “Oh... alright then...” he muttered dejectedly. “I hope that the room we get will be easy then...”

The crackle from the megaphone got the groups’ attention. “Have you guys picked yet?” Koichi asked, speaking into the megaphone. When everyone nodded or verbally affirmed so, the blond guy responded with “Great! Get in those rooms and wait for the doors to lock before trying to get out.”

Dragging the redhead to the tallest room for the event, Makoto swung the door open and stepped inside, making sure to close the door behind the two of them. The place was a library of sorts, with a spiral staircase tucked away in one corner that led to a raised floor. An office desk was hidden in the other corner, with a piece of art hung up behind it. A long table stretched the length of one part of the room, and a row of bookshelves lined up behind it. Besides the two at the entryway was a small stand with two notecards.

“Oh, this might be our first clue,” Makoto said as he picked up the two cards. One card read “On the 5th of the final year, Past the twinkling woods, once All is Lost, they shall be found once more”. Makoto scrunched up his nose while reading it, and turned his attention to the second card. It explained the Dewey Decimal System on it, with a chart of it on the back. “Hey, Leon, hold onto these for a bit, will you?” Makoto asked, dropping any pretenses of not being familiar with one another as he did so.

“Oh, yeah, sure thing babe,” Leon responded, acknowledging their isolation from everyone else. “Hand it over; I’ll keep them in my back pocket.” Doing as his boyfriend asked of him, Makoto handed the two cards over to Leon, who then promptly stuck them inside his back pocket.

Just as Leon did so, the door clicked close. “Oh, I guess that means we can start now, huh?” Makoto commented. He inspected the lock on the door; it was a card reader, which Makoto concluded that they needed a certain card in order to escape. “Hey, Leon, do you have any ideas on where we could find a card here?” the shorter boy asked.

Leon shrugged in response. “I dunno man. Maybe in the desk?” he suggested. “I mean, if the card acts like a key, then I’d keep the card hidden somewhere safe.”

“Hmm, good point,” Makoto mulled. “Let’s search the room and see if we can find anything. I’ll call for you if I find anything; please do the same if you find anything.”

The two guys split up, and Makoto decided to ascend the stairs first to see if there was anything of interest on the second floor. When he got there, there was a large beanbag chair laying on the ground, a rug that seemed like it hadn’t been washed in years, and a wooden thing hanging on the wall with thirteen symbols, accompanying keyholes, and a drawer on the bottom. When Makoto tried to pull on it, it didn’t budge. “Well, seems like it’ll only open once we get thirteen keys for this thing...” Makoto muttered to himself. “Let’s keep looking.”

Moving over to the beanbag chair, Makoto lifted it up to see if there was anything underneath. Sure enough, there were two papers that were tucked underneath it. One paper had the title “Zodiac Names & Symbols”, with the symbols on the wooden thing inscribed on it with accompanying names. The second paper read “Fire Elements: Aires Leo Sagittarius (Orange), Earth Elements: Taurus Virgo Capricorn (Green), Air Elements: Gemini Libra Aquarius (Light Blue), Water Elements: Cancer Scorpio Pisces (Dark Blue), Aether Element: Ophiuchus (Purple)”. Makoto instantly realized that they needed to get specific colored keys and insert them into the wooden thing on the wall in order to open the drawer.

Figuring that something was hidden underneath the rug as well, Makoto moved it around to reveal a trap door. Once he opened it, it revealed a chest with a four digit code. A piece of paper was also revealed, which read “3.xx15x26535x979... Digits of pi, Dangun Calendar, 001-099”. Makoto recalled the digits of pi after having to learn an extensive amount of them during a summer cram school math lesson that his parents made him take last year, so he was able to figure out that the missing digits were “1498”. However, seeing that the paper said “Dangun Calendar”, Makoto figured that inserting 1498 into the chest wouldn’t work, as that would be the expected answer from someone who only knew about the Gregorian calendar. But the “001-099” reminded Makoto of the Dewey Decimal System, and ran down the stairs to retrieve the note that they got at the beginning of the escape room, which Leon still had with him.

On the first floor, Leon was inspecting the desk tucked away in one of the corners. He rattled at the drawers for it, to little avail. The only thing he got from the opened drawers was a small silver key. “Ugh, damn it!” he grunted in frustration. “How the hell am I supposed to figure this shit out?”

“Leon!” Makoto shouted as he ran down the stairs. “I need the card with the chart on it from you! I have a lead on something!”

Leon jolted upright from his position by the desk, and took out the card from his back pocket before handing it to Makoto, when then snatched it from him. “W-What is it?” the redhead questioned. “What did you find?”

“There’s this trapdoor upstairs, and there’s a chest that need a four digit code in order to open it,” Makoto explained. “I was given a clue that it’s related to the Dangun calendar, and it’s probably hidden in one of these bookshelves, so I need the card with the chart on it to find it.” Using the card as a reference, Makoto scoured the rows of books until he finally found something. Pulling it out, the cover read “Gregorian-Dangun Calendar Converter”. Makoto set it down on the desk Leon was inspecting earlier, and flipped open its contents. “Leon, why don’t you try to find something else while I look through this book?” Makoto suggested.

“Yeah, sure thing Makoto,” Leon complied. “Just don’t expect me to be able to find much.” Leon staggered away from the desk and glanced around the room, trying to see if he could notice anything odd. And when he looked down at the floor, he noticed that one of the table’s legs was being propped up by a book so it was leveled out. “Oh, that might be something,” he muttered. Walking over to it, he lifted the table so that he could retrieve the book from underneath the shortened leg. When he did so, however, there was a small wooden box with a tiny puzzle on it. Leon tried flicking at the knob on the puzzle, and it flew across the line. Instantly figuring out what to do, Leon began to maneuver the knob across the puzzle until he got it to the center. He pressed down on the knob, and with a little click, the top of the box opened, revealing a purple key and a note, which read “To be, or not to be? That is the question” on it once Leon unfolded it.

“I heard something open over there,” Makoto voiced across the desk. “Did you get something?”

“Uh, yeah, I got something here,” Leon responded. “It’s a purple key and a note with a question. Want me to pass them to you?”

“Oh, yes please!” Makoto answered. “That purple key will most likely fit in the puzzle upstairs. Is there anything else?”

Leon realized that the book that was being used to prop up was still beside him, so he cracked it open. A note fell out of it, which read “Do Re Mi(3) Fa So La Ti Do(1) Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do Re Mi Fa So(2) La Ti Do”. “Uh, there’s something about music here, as well,” Leon responded. “I don’t know what to do with it though.

“That’s fine. We don’t need an immediate response to everything,” Makoto assured him. “Hold onto the notes and pass me the key; I’m going back upstairs, since I now have the answer I was looking for from this book.” Makoto jogged over to Leon, who in turn handed the purple key over to him, and ran up the stairs.

Once up the stairs, Makoto turned his attention over to the chest, and knelt down beside it. “Okay, so the four missing digits from pi on the paper make 1498, but should we assume that it’s referring to 1498 AD on the Gregorian Calendar, if we convert it to the Dangun Calendar, we get 3831, so...” Makoto inputted “3831” into the chest, and it clicked open. Inside the chest were three light blue keys, with the exact same design as the purple key that Leon found. “Aha! Finally got these keys!” Makoto cheered. Referencing the papers from under the beanbag chair that he found earlier, Makoto inserted the light blue keys into the slots beside the Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius symbols, and the purple key into the slot beside the Ophiuchus symbol. Turning them all clockwise until they clicked, Makoto took a step back and smiled. “Alright, we’re getting there,” he told himself. “Four down, nine more to go.”

“Yo, Makoto!” Leon shouted from the floor below. “I heard some clicks up there! What happened?”

“I got the keys to work!” Makoto responded enthusiastically over the railing. “Now we just need to find a few more and we’re set!”

“In that case, why don’t we take a crack at figuring out these notes?” Leon suggested. “We don’t really have the time to be sitting around and twiddling our thumbs if we want to get first place!”

“Ooh, good idea!” Makoto agreed. “I’ll be down in a moment!” The shorter boy ran down the spiral staircase in a flurry and came to a stop in front of the redhead. “Why don’t we start with the other card we got at the beginning?” he suggested. “It might lead us to something important.”

“Yeah, sure,” Leon complied. Pulling out the card from his back pocket, he handed it over to Makoto, who read it over once more. “Got anything?”

“...Yeah, I might have a lead,” Makoto commented. “The words ‘On’, ‘Past’, ‘All’, and ‘Lost’ are all capitalized, and the word ‘fifth’ is spelt with the number five.”

Leon pondered on it for a moment, before snapping his fingers. “Do you think it might mean ‘Opal’?” he asked. “I mean, that’s what all those capitalized letters spell out when put together.

Makoto looked down at the card to double check, and nodded. “Yeah... yeah, that could be possible,” he acknowledged. “But then that means the five is relevant to it somehow... maybe it’s the Dewey Decimal System again?”

“Eh, worth a shot,” Leon figured. He handed the other card from the beginning over to Makoto. “Knock yourself out.”

Nodding in affirmation, Makoto read through the chart on the card and realized that the five on the “Opal” card was probably referring to the Natural Sciences, as those would be classified as being between 500 and 599 in the system. Rushing over to the Natural Sciences part of the row of bookshelves, and scanned the rows of books until he found a book titled “Opal”. When he took it out, a paper that read “80974351 Vernal” fell out. Makoto bent over to pick it up.

“Okay, I got a note with a string of numbers and the word ‘Vernal’ on it,” Makoto told Leon. “What’s next?”

“Well, we could tackle the other two notes I have,” Leon suggested. “I got something that’s probably related to philosophy, and something that’s definitely related to music. Take your pick.”

Makoto thought on it for a bit. “Let’s tackle the philosophy one first,” he suggested. “It’s probably going to be shorter. What does it say?” Leon silently handed the note over to Makoto, who read it really quickly and looked up. “Leon, this is from Hamlet, not philosophy,” Makoto corrected the redhead.

“Sorry, sorry. I don’t like reading books like that, y’know,” Leon told him with a huff. “They hurt my brain a lot.”

Makoto sighed. “I know. It’s okay,” he said. “But if this is from Hamlet, that must mean there’s a copy of it hidden somewhere in here. It’s probably in the Literature section. Can you go fetch it?”

“Oh yeah, sure thing,” Leon agreed. He ran over to the Literature section of the bookshelves, and scanned the books until he found a lone copy of Hamlet sitting in it. When he grabbed on it, though, he realized that it wasn’t actually a book; rather, it was a wooden box. He took it out and opened it, which revealed three orange keys inside. “Hey, Makoto! I got more of those keys you wanted!” he shouted.

“Oh, perfect! Thank you, Leon!” Makoto thanked the redhead. He grabbed the keys and ran back up the stairs to reach the wooden thing on the wall where the keys were supposed to go. Referencing the zodiac papers, Makoto inserted the keys into the Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius slots, and twisted them until he heard a click for each of them. “Awesome! Just a few more left, and then we’ll get our way out of here!”

“Hey, Makoto!” Leon shouted from below. “I think I have an idea of how to solve this music puzzle! It’s got to do with the stairs!”

Makoto leaned over the railing to look down at Leon, who in turn was looking up at him. “Really?” he questioned. “Explain it to me!”

“Okay, so there’s twenty-two steps on the stairs, and each one creaked a little when you ran up it,” Leon began explaining. “I could hear that each one creaked differently, like they were musical notes or something! I think we might find some more keys with the staircase!”

“Woah, that’s really smart!” Makoto gasped. “I’ll run down the stairs; guide me to where I need to be!” As he finished saying that, the shorter guy ran down the stairs to the lower level. “Now, lead the way, Leon!”

Taking out the card with the music notes on them, Leon instructed Makoto “Okay, the eighth step should be where the first part is. Go there.” Makoto did as he was told, and noticed that there was a small handle on one end of the step. Pulling it open, it revealed a chrome colored key. “Alright, head up to the nineteenth step now! The thing you got from the eighth step should help you with this one!” Makoto ended up discovering a slot for the chrome colored key to go in at the nineteenth step, and when he opened it, he found two keys; a star shaped key, and a triangle shaped key. “Last one Makoto!” Leon shouted. “Come back down to the third step! Then we should have the keys you were looking for!” Makoto made his way down the stairs and tried to use the star shaped key on the last slot; when that failed, he used the triangle shaped key on it. When it opened, it revealed three dark blue keys.

“Awesome! Now we only have one more set of keys to get!” Makoto cheered. “What are we supposed to do with this key though?” He showed off the star shaped key to Leon, who immediately recognized something.

“Oh! There was a star shaped lock on one of the desk’s drawers!” he exclaimed. “Hand me the key, I’ll go fetch its contents really quickly.” Makoto passed the key over to Leon, who then scurried over to use the key on the lock. When it worked, he pulled it open to reveal the final set of green colored keys. “Aha! It worked! We have all the sets now!” he cheered. “Makoto! Take the keys and get the way out of here!”

Leon tossed the green keys over to Makoto, who caught them and dashed up the stairs to reach the wooden thing. He inserted and twisted all of the keys in their respective places - the dark blue keys in Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces, and the green keys in Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn - the drawer at the bottom opened up. Makoto reached inside and pulled out a small chest with an eight digit code on it. “Hey, Leon!” Makoto shouted. “What was the sequence of numbers on that one card you found?”

“Oh, lemme see!” the redhead responded. He rushed to pull out the card. “Alright, here it is! 80974351!”

Makoto punched in the numbers to the lock, and the chest opened to reveal a surplus of black plastic cards with holographic designs engraved on them. “Okay, I got it, but now we have to find the right card to escape!” Makoto shouted. “I’ll bring it down!”

Makoto dashed down the stairs one last time - making sure to be extra careful, now that he knew some of the steps were liable to trip on - and showed off the crate to Leon, who inspected its contents with a look of frustration. “Okay, let’s see what we have, at least,” Leon muttered. He dumped the cards out and laid them out so the designs faced upright; there was one with a cat on it, one with a bear on it, one with a dog on it, one with a gear on it, one with a spring on it, and one with a screwdriver on it. Leon grunted in annoyance. “Damn it, what clues do we even have to solve this?” he questioned. “We may as well just guess and check.”

Suddenly, something clicked in Makoto’s brain. “Wait a minute, we haven’t used the ‘Vernal’ hint yet!” he exclaimed. “It means ‘spring’, like the season, so if this is a case of wordplay, then the card that’ll get us out of here is the one with the spring design on it!”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Leon asked. “Let’s get the hell out of here!” Grabbing the holographic card, the two boys ran to the exit and swiped the card through the slit on the reader, and the light on it turned green. “Hell yeah!” the redhead cheered. “We did it!” He pulled Makoto in for a hug and excitedly planted a kiss on the shorter boy’s forehead, causing the latter to blush.

“Y-Yeah! We did it!” Makoto celebrated. “Let’s step out to see what place we got!” He grabbed onto the handle of the door, and with a deep breath, he swung the door open so the two could walk back out to the fresh, open air of Hope’s Peak Academy.

“And there we have it, everyone! The final team has stepped out!”

“...Huh?”

Much to Leon and Makoto’s surprise - and dismay - it was revealed that they were the last team to escape their respective room; Sayaka and Kyoko were the first to escape to no one’s surprise, followed by Sakura and Chihiro, and then Celes and Hifumi, before ending it off with Makoto and Leon. “Congrats to all the teams that participated!” Koichi applauded through his megaphone. “Now head on out to your next events so the next class can participate in these escape rooms! We need to clean up after all of your messes, after all.”

Sayaka and Kyoko approached Leon and Makoto after the whole event was over for their class. “I have to admit, participating in that escape room was rather run,” Kyoko admitted with a smile of satisfaction on her face. “It’s nice to participate in fun events like that when your typical work is much more gruesome and macabre.”

“Yeah, that was really fun!” Sayaka added. “I hope you two have fun as well!”

“Oh, Naegi and I had fun in our escape room,” Leon responded, effortlessly switching over to his facade of only being acquainted with Makoto. “I’m not really the smartest, though, so it probably dragged us down big time.”

“Actually, aside from the two of us, every team escaped at roughly around the same time,” Kyoko revealed to the two guys. “Kizakura-senpai actually just got done announcing Celes-san and Yamada-san’s escape when you two got out. And just moments before them was Ogami-san and Fujisaki-san’s escape. So don’t feel too bad for coming in last.”

“Thanks for the kind words Kirigiri-san, but I still kind of feel a little sad for coming in last,” Makoto whimpered. “And... now that I think about it, I’m a little thirsty as well.”

“Oh, let’s go get some water from one of the concession stands!” Sayaka offered. “They’re handing out small cups to anyone who comes over.”

Makoto nodded. “Alright, sounds good,” he agreed. He turned around to Kyoko and Leon. “I’ll be taking my leave now. Have fun with the rest of the festival Kirigiri-san, Kuwata-san.”

“I’ll try my best to,” Leon commented. “But maaaan, I hate how hot it is. I’m probably going to end up sweating a lot because of this.”

“So long as you don’t end up getting your sweat on me in the process, we should be fine,” Kyoko stated, evidently disgusted with the idea of getting the redhead’s sweat on her body. “Take care, you two.”

“Yeah. Cya,” Makoto responded. He turned around to face Sayaka, and walked over to one of the concession stands with her to get some water to help quench his thirst. And the sports festival at Hope’s Peak Academy continued to go on strongly for the rest of the afternoon.


	5. Day 5: Flowers

“Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! Why the hell aren’t these keys working?!”

The rain kept pouring down as Leon fumbled with the keys to the Mondo had given him the day prior. None of the keys were working on the gate, and when combined with Leon’s increasing frustration with the lack of success on opening the gates to the tattoo parlor and the torrential downpour of rain going on, it only made the redhead even more miserable at that moment. “Fuck! This is so uncool!” he vented seething at the teeth. He slammed the keys on the pavement hard and yelled out in frustration.

“Um, excuse me? Are you okay?”

Leon whipped behind him to see that a small guy with brown hair was peeping out from the doorway at the neighboring flower shop. “M-Maybe you should get out of the rain before you catch a cold,” the guy suggested. “If you need to dry off, I think I have a few hand towels you can use.”

Unsure of if it’d be a good idea to hold out on getting into the tattoo parlor or to stay in the rain, Leon’s decision quickly came to be when he started to feel the rain come down on the street even more. With a huff of annoyance, he grabbed the pair of keys that he threw down earlier and ran inside the flower shop, taking a look around. It was quaint, with little displays of bouquets and other amenities scattered around the store. Music played softly on the overhead speaker hanging on one wall of the store, which Leon was able to identify as being contemporary classical music. “Huh. Nice place you got here,” Leon muttered.

“Oh, uh, thank you,” the guy quietly thanked him. “I don’t actually own this place; I just work her part-time for my aunt. B-But that’s not important. Are you doing okay? You seemed frustrated out there.”

Leon ran a hand through his wet hair and let out a heavy sigh. “I was supposed to start learning from my friend’s older brother about tattoos and shit, but the keys my friend gave me wouldn’t work on the gate blocking it. Doesn’t help that it’s raining hard outside.”

“Oh, you’re acquainted with Owada-sama?” the guy questioned. “He’s a surprisingly nice guy; he bought some flowers for his girlfriend’s birthday a week ago, and wouldn’t stop gushing about how he was going to spoil her that evening. From what I heard from him, she really liked the flowers, so that’s a good thing.”

Leon was surprised to hear about Daiya buying the flowers from the shop next to his own tattoo parlor; he knew the guy was rather particular about what he approved of and what he didn’t, based on what Mondo had described to him. Knowing that the flower shop that he was standing in had the guy’s metaphorical seal of approval made him feel warm. “Oh, really?” he questioned. “That’s surprising.”

“What’s even more surprising is how he apparently used to be the leader of a local biker gang,” the shorter guy added on. “He has the looks for it, but to know that someone as gushy as him could be the leader of a biker gang... honestly terrifies me. If I got on his bad side, I don’t know what I’d do.” The guy nervously chuckled at the thought of Daiya confronting him over something.

Leon already knew that Daiya was the former leader of the local biker gang, the Crazy Diamonds - Mondo was the new leader for it, after all - so he understood the shorter guy’s concerns. “Oh, hey, I just realized we never even introduced ourselves to each other,” Leon stated. He extended out his hand to the shorter guy and said “I’m Leon Kuwata. Pleasure to meet you... um...”

“Makoto Naegi,” the shorter guy introduced himself. He extended his own hand out and grasped Leon’s, and firmly shook it as he smiled. “And the pleasure’s all mine. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other a lot more from now one, so let’s be sure to get along.”

“Ah, right.” Leon retracted his hand, effectively ending the handshake, and realized he was still wet. “You said you had towels, right?” he asked. “Where are they?”

“Oh! They’re, uh, hand towels, so you’re going to need to use a lot of them,” Makoto explained. “There should be a lot in the back room, so feel free to use most of them. The passcode to get in is 1041.”

“Awesome. Thanks.” Leon walked over to the back room door and punched in the passcode before opening it and stepping inside. He flicked the light switch on, and looked around to find the hand towels that Makoto had mentioned. When he grabbed one and started to dry himself off, he began to think about Makoto. Though he couldn’t see what kind of pants and shoes he was wearing, he thought that the white turtleneck and green apron he had on looked good on him. They went well with his brown hair and faded green eyes, and the smile on his face was rather cute.

‘Wait, what the fuck? Why the hell am I thinking that a guy’s cute?’ Leon thought to himself when he realized he was thinking about it. ‘He’s a guy. We’re both guys. We should be into girls. Girls are cute. So why the hell am I thinking that he’s cute? Is he secretly a girl or something?’

Shaking his head, Leon realized that his shirt and jacket had become completely soaked due to the rain, and took them off so he could attempt to dry them. He silently thanked whatever deity was watching him from above for not having his pants be horribly soaked from the rain. Grabbing another hand towel, he dried his upper body to the best of his abilities, before looking around the room. ‘It doesn’t seem like there’s any spare shirts in here that I can use...’ Leon thought to himself. ‘Maybe I could ask Naegi for an extra shirt. He might have something... even if it’s a size too small.’ He swung open the door and asked “Yo, Naegi, do you have something I can wear?”

“Alright ma’am, your total comes out to be- ah? Ah-!”

Makoto was dealing with a customer at the cash register when Leon stepped out from the back room, asking for a shirt. The shorter guy’s face immediately went red as his eyes widened and focused on the redhead’s defined upper body, as the customer - and older lady with an umbrella - kept glancing between the two before snickering to herself. She then silently slid a wad of cash and said “Keep the change” before leaving.

“Oh, shit, sorry man. I didn’t realize you were busy,” Leon apologized.

“N-No, no, it’s fine,” Makoto dismissed, averting his gaze away from Leon’s body. “Um, if you need a shirt, there should be an old hoodie somewhere back there. It might be hidden, though. L-Lemme just focus on putting away this cash.”

Leon blushed a little at the realization that he was, in fact, shirtless in front of Makoto, who he could tell was trying not to look at him. “Oh, yeah, s-sure,” Leon agreed. “I’ll, uh- I’ll go look for it now. Be right back.” He ducked back into the back room and slammed the door shut behind him. He placed his hand on his chest where his heart was, and could feel it going crazy inside of him. “Ohh... fuuuck...” he muttered.

Shaking his head, he looked around for where the hoodie Makoto mentioned would be hidden, and saw something cloth-like tucked away behind some ribbons. When he pulled it out, it was the hoodie; it was a tad small for him, but if he left it unzipped, it wouldn’t make it hard for him to breath. He threw it around his body and took a sniff of it; it smelled like dirt and flowers. It made sense, but he thought it should’ve been taken to a laundromat to get a wash.

When he came out of the back room once more, Makoto was now calmer, though evidently still flustered over the sight of Leon’s chest. Seeing him in the hoodie brought red back to his face, however. Leon decided to take advantage of that and mess with Makoto a little bit, figuring that he may have a fun time with it.

“Huh? What is it, Naegs?” Leon asked as he strolled over to the counter, making sure to give the shorter boy a bit of a pet name. He leaned over and put on a look of worry on his face. “You seem flushed. Is everything okay?”

“O-Oh yeah, everything’s fine!” Makoto responded, with a hitter in his voice. His face went scarlet red at that moment, and while he tried to maintain eye contact with the redhead, all he could do was dart his eyes between them and the defined muscles that made up Leon’s chest. “Don’t worry about me! I-I am absolutely fine! Perfectly fine!”

“Are you sure?” Leon asked, leaning in even more. “Because it kind of seems like your eyes are fixed on something. Mind telling me what that thing is... Makoto?”

“...I... I-I was just-“

“Is it my chest?”

The moment Leon uttered that question, Makoto was about to pass out from the stimulation going on, with the only thing he could say were short stammers. “It’s okay if you wanna touch it,” Leon told him with a soft, almost sensual voice. “Here, let me help you out with that.” He snaked his hand to gently grab Makoto’s wrist, who didn’t even attempt to fight against the grip, as the shorter boy’s hand was pressed against the redhead’s chest. Slowly, Leon began to move it around, so Makoto’s hands could feel their firmness. “Hey, do you like this?” he asked. “Do you like how my chest feels? Does it feel good to you?”

“I-I... I...”

“Kuwata, knock it off. The poor guy’s obviously overwhelmed right now.”

The familiar voice that Leon heard coming from behind pulled him out of the trance he didn’t know he fell into, and let go of the smaller guy’s wrist before stepping back and laughing awkwardly. When he turned to face the voice, he saw Mondo in his usual garb under an umbrella with his older brother, Daiya. “Sorry, sorry,” Leon apologized. “He just seemed so fun to mess around with that I couldn’t help myself.”

Mondo rolled his eyes and huffed in annoyance. “Yeah yeah, whatever,” he dismissed. “Anyways, turns out the key for the gate in front of the parlor were at our place, so we had to come over in a hurry to unlock it for you.”

“Sorry you had to get wet in the rain like that,” Daiya apologized. “But hey, you’ll be learning some cool new stuff about tattoos under me, so you might have fun.”

“Oh, sick!” Leon cheered. “Lemme switch out to my regular clothes really quick!” The redhead ran to the back room really quickly and threw off the hoodie before padding his wet shirt. It felt less wet since he placed it on some hand towels, so it was better than nothing. He threw the shirt back on and bolted out of the room over to the brothers... only to be met with Daiya’s palm in his face.

“Hold up,” Daiya started. “You need to apologize to Naegi here. Teasing him like that isn’t cool. He’s a sensitive guy.”

Leon clicked his tongue in annoyance before swerving over to Makoto. “Alright. Listen man, I’m sorry for teasing you like that,” Leon began apologizing. “It got out of hand, and that’s entirely my fault.”

“N-No, it’s okay!” Makoto responded, immediately forgiving him for everything. “I tend to just overreact to situations like that. I-If you want, I could give you my number so we could chat and hang out sometime to get to know each other a bit more. Ah, b-but you don’t have to if you don’t want to!”

The redhead stared at the shorter guy with a look of mild confusion on his face before shrugging. “Eh, sure, whatever,” he complied. “Hand me your phone. I’ll add myself to your contacts.” Makoto whipped out his phone and unlocked it before handing it to Leon, who then proceeded to insert his number as a new contact on the phone and handed it back. “Text me in a bit, alright?”

“Y-Yeah, sure!” Makoto agreed. “You should get going now. Have fun learning how to do tattoos!”

Leon gave the smaller guy a smile before walking out with the brothers, huddling under the umbrella they shared as to not get wet any further. Daiya effortlessly unlocked the gates, slid them aside, and opened the door for the tattoo parlor before stepping inside. Mondo and Leon followed suit as the redhead took in his new surroundings. “Woah, this place is cool...” he gasped.

Daiya chuckled. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” he admitted. “But it’s even cooler how a guy asked you for your number, and you didn’t even realize it.”

“Huh?” Leon questioned, his nose scrunching up. “What do you mean by that?”

“Dude, are you dense or something?” Mondo spoke up. “He was hitting on you.”

The realization of everything hit Leon like a truck, and his face turned a bright red as his eyes widened. At that moment, his phone pinged, indicating he got a new message. He pulled it out and read it, before putting it away.

“Hey hey hey, don’t be slick,” Daiya spoke. “What was the message?”

Leon gulped. “...It was Makoto. He was asking if I wanted to meet him for coffee next week,” he explained.

“Woah, first name basis already? Damn, sparks are flying!” Mondo teased. The redhead hissed at him, but he just laughed it off. “So, what are you gonna do about it?” he asked. “You gonna follow him up on his offer?” Leon pulled out his phone, looked down at the message on his screen for a bit, and then responded.

“...Maybe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a mini-story I wanted to write that ties in with Day 6's entry, so these two chapters will be connected to each other. Just wanted to clarify that!


	6. Day 6: Dates

“What... the hell did I get myself into, exactly?”

The question was a rhetorical one; Leon already knew the answer. He was just baffled by it. Baffled by the fact that he was on a date with another guy. On a date with Makoto.

The whole thing happened when Leon decided to reply to Makoto’s message when he entered the tattoo parlor with Daiya and Mondo after they rescued him from the neighboring flower shop, which he had been hiding out at during a horrible rainstorm. It was there at the flower shop where he met Makoto, and found him to be cute, and flirted with him on instinct, and got his number at the end of it all.

The message itself was a simple one; “Hey, do you want to get coffee with me sometime? I know a great local donut shop that has good coffee.” Nothing out of the ordinary; to the untrained eye, it would just be an invitation from one person to another to hang out, chat, and get to know each other. But when Leon sent a response affirming it, he was met with a quick text that read “Great! It’s a date then! I’ll meet you on Saturday here at 10 AM!”, and a link to a small donut shop. And Leon, by the end of the text conversation, was red in the face.

Had it not been for the Owada brothers egging him on to go to the donut shop at the specified time, Leon wasn’t sure if he was even going to show up to the date whatsoever. But now, there he was, sitting by his lonesome at one of the benches outside the donut shop, fifteen minutes before their agreed upon time.

“Seriously, why the hell did I even agree to this...?” Leon muttered to himself as he buried his head into his hands. “I’m not gay. I-I’m a ladies man. I like girls! So why the hell did I agree to go on a date with a guy?” He let out a long groan of exasperation as he lifted his head out of his hands. “This is so dumb...”

Figuring that the best way to pass the time would be to scroll through social media, Leon opened up Instagram on his phone and began to lazily scroll about his feed, before turning over to his own account to reminisce about the past. Every third or so photo was of him with some girl, half of whom he couldn’t remember their names. When he checked the dates the photos were uploaded, he could see that there was only about a week’s gap between the photos. Seeing just how often he was hooking up with different girls and failing to find any sort of happiness with them frustrated him, so he just shut off his phone and tucked it back into his pocket.

Regardless of how popular he was with the ladies, Leon could never seem to land a girlfriend for longer than a week. At first, he thought it was them just trying to leech off of them for the status as someone semi-popular’s girlfriend. But after some self-reflection, he came to the realization that he never felt any sort of connection with any of them. There were no sparks on his end, no joys in seeing them, no tingling sensations of bliss as he kissed them on the lips. Nothing. So he always called their relationship off after only a few days, in hopes of finding the right girl to make him feel those sorts of things.

The last photo of him with a girl on his Instagram was taken roughly a month ago, meaning Leon had been abstaining from relationships since then. He figured that it was because of that abstinence from relationships that he had grown crazy and desperate enough to try and go on a date with another guy in an effort to fill that void within him. Yet he felt a lingering sense of excitement and worry whenever he saw Makoto in the flower shop as he made his way over to the tattoo parlor to continue learning from Daiya. They would exchange a few words every now and then, and Leon could always feel the tips of his ears burning whenever they talked. He liked talking to Makoto. More so than he should. And that scared him.

The redhead got up to stretch since he had been sitting on the bench for a while at that point, when he saw Makoto drive by in a small car. It wasn’t a bad car by any means necessary, Leon could tell that it was certainly a beater car, since the model of it seemed to be from the late 2000’s or early 2010’s. He watched the smaller guy park the car nearby and get out of the car before putting a scarf on. He then turned around to see Leon standing in front of the coffee shop, and a smile grew on his face with an accompanying blush. Makoto quickly made his way over to Leon.

“Hey!” Makoto greeted Leon enthusiastically. “I’m kind of surprised you were the type of person to arrive so early. I thought you were the exact opposite. But it’s great to see you!”

“Uh, y-yeah, likewise,” Leon muttered in response. “It’s kind of cold, so let’s step inside. I don’t particularly feel like getting sick.”

Makoto blinked in confusion before he realized it. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry if you’ve been standing out here for so long! L-Let’s get inside. Having a running heater sounds really nice right about now.” He chuckled a little at his own comment before heading over to the door and opening it, gesturing Leon to step inside. Figuring that it’d be rude to decline the offer, Leon quickly thanked Makoto for holding the door for him and made his way inside the donut shop.

The shutters were drawn on the windows for the donut shop, so Leon couldn’t have seen the inside of the store before Makoto arrived. But when he stepped in, he was greeted with a warm blast of heat; it gave the donut shop a toasty, almost homely feel to it. A boy with tanned skin and blue eyes who seemed to be about a year or two younger than Makoto and Leon stood behind the counter. “Hey, welcome back Makoto!” the boy greeted, seeming to be well acquainted with Makoto. “Who’s the redhead?”

“Hi to you too, Yuta,” Makoto greeted him back with the same sense of familiarity. “This is Leon Kuwata. We’re actually on a date right now! Isn’t that awesome?”

Yuta glanced between Leon and Makoto with a look of disbelief in his eyes. “You two? On a date?” he questioned. “Unless the redhead asked you out, Makoto, I don’t think you would ever be on a date.”

“Uh, actually, he did ask me on a... on a d-date,” Leon spoke up, tripping over his words as he grew flustered over proclaiming that he was on a date with another guy.

Yuta scoffed in utter shock, before laughing a little. “Wow. I never thought you’d have it in you, Makoto,” he spoke. “Alright, I’ll let you guys have this date for free; everything you want is on the house. My treat. Just treat him well, redhead.”

“...Duly noted,” Leon agreed, not fully appreciating being put on the spot like that.

The tanned boy’s expression shifted to a cheerful smile. “So!” he started. “What can I get for you two today?”

“Oh, I’ll have a medium iced blonde Americano and a glazed donut,” Makoto spoke up. “What about you, Leon? What do you plan on having?”

Leon glanced around at the menu hanging on the wall behind Yuta, trying to figure out what it was that he wanted. “Uh... I think I’ll just get a medium dark roast with two sugars and one cream,” he finally decided. “Oh, and a glazed donut as well.”

“Alright! I’ll bring out everything once the coffee’s done brewing,” Yuta proclaimed. “In the meantime, why don’t you two sit down and have a chat? I mean, that’s what people normally do on dates anyway.”

The two guys’ faces went read at the same time, much to Yuta’s amusement, and they went to go sit down at one of the tables. It was made of wood with metal chairs, but it didn’t seem cheap; it just felt a little used, almost like it were a hand-me-down from the previous establishment that ran the area the coffee shop was on.

There was a moment of silence between the two guys, as they were both unsure of what to say. It was Leon who broke the silence first. “So, uh,” he started, trying to figure out what to say. “How did you learn about this place?”

“Oh, one of my friends’ parents run this place,” Makoto explained. “The guy we just talked to is her younger brother. She’s out at swimming practice right now, though, so we won’t be bumping into her. I feel like she’d like you though.”

“Yeah, well, her brother certainly doesn’t seem to feel the same way about me,” Leon pointed out. The two turned to look at Yuta, who was glaring at Leon from the coffee machine before catching Makoto’s gaze and going back to work.

“Oh, yeah... He’s a bit protective of me,” Makoto explained. “My last boyfriend was emotionally abusive, so he’s been trying to keep me safe since then. My ex sometimes shows up to try to win me back, but it’s either him or Hina - that’s his sister’s nickname, by the way - that comes to the rescue whenever it happens.” Realizing what he just said, a look of panic washed over his face and quickly stammered out “O-Oh, gosh, I’m sorry! I didn’t think about if you were comfortable with me talking about it or not! P-Please forgive me!”

“H-Hey, hey, it’s fine, man,” Leon assured him. “You don’t have to worry about anything. And, uh... thank you for trusting me enough to share that with me. I can’t imagine it being easy to do that with someone you’ve only known for a few days at this point.”

Makoto offered the redhead a gentle smile as Yuta came by with their orders and set them down in front of them. “Alright, I’ll be in the back since no one else seems to be coming in, so just holler for me if you need anything Makoto,” Yuta explained.

Makoto nodded in agreement. “Alright then. Thank you for everything Yuta,” he thanked the tanned boy. Yuta nodded in response, and turned around to disappear behind the doors that led to the kitchen. The shorter boy then turned back to look at Leon, and noticed something. “Hey, is everything okay?” he questioned. “You look like you have something on your mind right now.”

“...Shit, is it really that obvious?” Leon asked.

Makoto nodded. “A little, yeah,” he admitted. “If you don’t want to talk about it, I totally understand... but I’m here to hear you out if you need me to.”

The redhead hesitated for a moment. “A-Alright, fine, I’ll tell you,” he complied. “But uh... don’t take it too personally.” Makoto gave a nod of understanding. “Alright, so uh... I’m not into guys,” Leon began. “Or at least, I don’t think so. I dunno. I’ll have to sort out my feelings first. But being on a date with you just feels... weird. Maybe even wrong. I-I mean, I’ve always thought I was straight, so the idea of being on a date with another guy just-“ He paused for a moment to think about what he wanted to say. “It’s just weird to me. Does... Does that make sense...?”

“...Yeah, don’t worry. I get it.”

Leon could see that Makoto was fighting against the tears welling up on his eyes, while still smiling for him. “I never asked if you were into me, so I was being really presumptuous with your identity,” he started. “I never once thought about what you wanted. I was being selfish with this date. I-I’m really sorry, Leon. I think... I-I-I think I just wanted to get away from him more. And to use you like that...” The shorter boy fell silent and dropped his head. So Leon placed his hand on top of Makoto’s.

“Hey. Listen to me, Makoto,” Leon told him. “I get that you want to move on from your ex. He sounds like a shitty person, and I’m sorry to hear that you had to go through something like that. I’m glad you realized that you were going too fast, though; I don’t even know if I like guys to begin with. And I’m not even sure if you actually like me.” Leon took a moment to think about what he wanted to say next. “So let’s make a deal.”

“...Huh? A deal...?” Makoto questioned, tears starting to die down in his eyes. “W-What kind of deal?”

“Let’s go on a second date,” Leon proposed. “This one’s obviously a bust on both of our ends, but we at least now understand where we stand. So, with the next date, I’ll see if I like guys or not, and you’ll see if you actually find me attractive. If we both find out we have chemistry together on a romantic level, let’s keep going. If not, then we’ll just stick to being friends. Deal?”

Makoto wiped away the tears that were starting to roll down his face and sniffed. “Alright, deal,” he agreed. “I’ll let you plan the date, since I kind of planned this one.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Leon assured him. “I’m an expert at date planning. I’ll figure something out for the both of us. Trust me on this.”

“...Alright. I trust you.”

Leon cracked a smile, and lifted his hand from Makoto’s. He grabbed ahold of his coffee, and took a sip of it. “Woah... Damn, you’re right,” he exclaimed. “This place does have good coffee.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a continuation of the storyline present in Day 5 of this fic! I thought it'd be cute to do so, so I hope you guys like it!


	7. Day 7: Free

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome back to the talkshow with the host with the most, and the hostess with the most-ess. It’s... The Kishinuma Show!!!”

The audience roared into an applause as two young identical looking people, one guy and one girl, walked out from behind the stage and took their seats on one of the two couches they had on the set. They waved at their fans, who were still cheering for them, and shared many thanks with them as they started to die down.

“Thank you so much for tuning in once more to The Kishinuma Show, everyone!” the girl spoke. “I’m Miyako, and this is my twin brother, Minato! And today, we are very excited to announce two very special guests who will be joining us tonight!”

“That’s right, Miyako!” Minato spoke up. “They’re both actors for the highly successful psychological teen thriller series, Danganronpa! One is the main lead of the series, and the other is the first killer, so give a warm around of applause to Arihiko Honda and Daisuke Miyamoto!”

Upon their reveal, two young men, fully dressed up as their characters, walked up onto the stage. They sat down next to each other on the couch adjacent to the Kishinuma twins, and waved at everyone.

“Honda-san, Miyamoto-san, I just want to say that it’s such an honor to have you both here with us right now,” Minato began. “I’ve been a fan of the Danganronpa series ever since Trigger Happy Havoc first came out, and it’s unbelievable to hear that you guys have already had three seasons and a spin-off mini-series!”

“Yeah, it’s insane, isn’t it?” Arihiko spoke up. “And with the announcement of the fourth season, seeing Danganronpa go off in a new direction without our characters will be really interesting. I know fans will miss characters like Makoto Naegi and Kyoko Kirigiri, but it’s time to retire those characters, and let new faces shine.” The audience roared into an applause over Arihiko’s statement.

“Well, let’s address something that a lot of people have probably already noticed,” Miyako chimed in. “You two are in your costumes! So why don’t we have you guys share with us what roles you played in the creation of the first three seasons of Danganronpa?”

“Oh, yeah, of course!” Arihiko complied. He then cleared his throat. “Hi! I’m Arihiko Honda, and I played Makoto Naegi in every installment of Danganronpa!”

“And I’m Daisuke Miyamoto!” the taller actor proclaimed. “I’m the actor for Leon Kuwata in the first season of Danganronpa, and the creative director for all of the executions in the series!”

The audience cheered for the two men, and the twin hosts had to wait for them to calm down once more before resuming. “So, we have a couple questions here that fans of The Kishinuma Show have submitted, and we’ll be asking you guys those questions,” Minato explained as he took out a bunch of cards from his suit pocket. He cleared his voice and began to read the first one out loud. “‘Honda-sama: What was it like to learn that you were cast to play as Makoto Naegi?’”

“If we’re being honest here, it was a massive surprise for me,” the shorter guy admitted. “Makoto’s initial concept had him being a fair bit taller than how I am, so it didn’t seem like I was going to get the role, but the producers really seemed to like how I characterized him as being his kind-hearted person instead of just a plain old self-insert or the viewer to project themselves onto, and I got the role. Though Miyamoto-san was actually supposed to get the role at first, if I recall correctly.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right... kind of,” Daisuke recalled. “The original actor for Leon, Wataru Chinen - great guy by the way, loved his performance in Zero Time Dilemma as Carlos - had a mess-up in his schedule, so he had to drop the role. The role of Makoto was undecided at the time and it was between me and Honda-san, so I dropped the role to take over as Leon.”

“Ohh, yeah yeah yeah, that’s how it went down...” Arihiko remembered. “S-Sorry for the bother, Daisuke.”

“Hey, it’s all good, don’t worry about it,” Daisuke assured him. He patted the shorter guy’s head, and the audience collectively admired the display of intimacy between the two.

“Awh, it’s sweet to see you two get along so well!” Miyako gushed. “Sometimes I wish Minato would get along with me that well.” The two twins simultaneously punched each other in their arms jokingly as the audience and two guests laughed at the banter. “But anyways, let’s move onto the next question!” she continued. “This one is for Honda-san as well! ‘Honda-sama: In the first season of Danganronpa, Makoto’s height was charted as being 5’3. However, in the spinoff series, his height is charted as being 5’2. Why was there a change in the character’s height?’”

“Oh, that’s actually a great question,” Arihiko responded. “Back in the production of Trigger Happy Havoc, the producers decided that me being 5’2 wasn’t going to fly, so they had me wear one-inch platform sneakers so I could at least seem a little taller. However, about a year later, right before the filming for the second season was about to wrap up, my medical records accidentally got leaked, showcasing my height as 5’2. So, to make sure that my height seemed consistent, they edited it in subsequent DVD releases and made my height 5’2 during pre-production of Ultra Despair Girls.”

“Oh yeah, that does make sense, now that I think about it,” Minato voiced. “I know the DVD releases had some changes, like uncensoring Leon’s execution and removing Yumi Aozora’s little groan of pain as she fell on the floor as Toko during the second trial. You know, the bit right before she woke up as Genocider Syo?”

“Oh man, I remember that!” Daisuke exclaimed. “We had to take a half hour break during filming because she needed to rest before putting her makeup on as Syo. I remember she just babbled on about gerbils as she laid on the couch we had behind the scenes.” He laughed about it and wiped a tear away. “That will always be one of the best stories of mine while working on Danganronpa.”

“Speaking of working on Danganronpa, we actually have a question on that subject,” Minato voiced. “‘Miyamoto-sama: How difficult was it to plan for some of the executions?”

Daisuke let out a sigh of exhaustion upon hearing the question. “Oh, man... it was rough, I’ll tell you that much,” he shared. “We were all given the death order for each season when they were in pre-production, and each character had their own set of notes that we needed to memorize. I’d have to figure out how to format each execution based on those notes, and collaborate with each executed character’s actor to figure out what they wanted to be added. For example, during Celes’ execution in Trigger Happy Havoc, it was her actress’ idea to add the massive bunny thing atop the stage, since in early concepts for Celes’ character, she was more doll-like and had a stuffed bunny with her. She wanted to echo that original concept, since she really liked it.”

“Wow, that sounds like a lot of work...” Minato murmured. “How did you feel about each of them?”

Daisuke leaned forward on the couch to face Minato. “It. Was. Absolute. Hell,” he blatantly told him. “Pre-production was usually a rather short period of time, so planning six - or sometimes even more - executions within that timeframe was painful. And then the budget for them was also rather limited at times. I think the execution that reflects that the most was Mikan’s execution in Goodbye Despair. We got a lot of letters from fans saying they were disappointed with the execution, and even Mikan’s actress, Rin Ogawa, felt the same way. I don’t blame them for feeling that way.”

“I certainly wouldn’t either,” Miyako commented. “It sounded like a total pain to deal with.”

“Just hearing about it always made me tired,” Arihiko spoke up. “Whenever Daisuke would come back home after a particularly long day in the studio, he’d always tell me how much of a pain it was over dinner. We usually got boxes of fried chicken whenever that happened. He likes fried chicken.”

“Oh that’s right, you two live together,” Miyako commented. “I totally forgot.”

“...Actually, it’s not that we just live together; we’re also engaged.”

The crowd went wild upon Daisuke revealing his relationship with Arihiko, who looked exasperated at the sudden reveal of their romance to the public. But he wasn’t about to let that stop him. “In fact, we’ve been engaged since early on in the first season’s production. I was adamant about having my engagement ring as part of my costume as Leon. Here, here, look.” He took off one of the many rings he wore for the costume and lifted it up in the air, showing that it was different than the other rings he had on his hands.

“Wow! Engaged in your early 20’s? You two must be serious about this relationship, huh?” Minato asked.

Daisuke shrugged. “What can I say? I love him. He’s like my soulmate, and I don’t want to let him go,” he stated nonchalantly. “We’d probably be married already if it wasn’t for the fact that Japan hasn’t legalized same-sex marriage yet. Come on, Japan! I’m waiting!”

The audience laughed at Daisuke’s joke for a bit before settling. “Alright, the time’s almost up, so how about we wrap this questionnaire up with one last question?” Miyako suggested. “This is addressed to the both of you, so it’s perfect for this! ‘Honda-sama and Miyamoto-sama: Now that the both of you will be stepping away from the Danganronpa series as actors and producers, what sort of projects do you have planned for the future?”

“Oh, wow. Good question,” Daisuke thought out loud. “Um... I think what I’m going to do next is try to collaborate with Team Danganronpa to make a documentary on the process of making Trigger Happy Havoc a reality, and how it became such a cultural phenomenon. I’m sure people would like to see a more in-depth look at the development of such a series. But you asked for something that isn’t related to Danganronpa, so... I’m not sure. I’ll probably just make some music, since I have a few ideas for song in the back of my mind.”

Arihiko, still red in the face from being outed by Daisuke as being his fiancé, spoke up next. “I-I have permission to say this, so I’ll say it right now,” he spoke. “I’ve been casted as the Japanese voices of Steven on Steven Universe and Finn on Adventure Time, both on Cartoon Network.” The audience cheered for him for a moment. “It’s an honor to be voicing two main characters for shows that are popular in the West,” he continued. “I hope to be able to bring these two characters to live in a meaningful way.”

”I’m sure you will, Honda-san, so don’t worry,” Minato affirmed him. He then turned to the camera.

“Well, that’s all the time we have for today! Thank you for tuning in to The Kishinuma Show! Next time, we’ll be talking to two more actors - or should we say, actresses - of Danganronpa, Yukiko Hiyori and Uzume Yayoi, about their times on set! Cya then!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Thank you for reading my submissions for Naeleon Week 2020 until its end! I know they were really short, but I'm still proud of what I was able to accomplish in such a short time, based on just a few prompts. Here's to Naeleon Week 2021 hopefully happening!


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